February 2008 Archives

I ganked a link from a friend's blog, and thought I'd pass it along.

It's called Blogger Play, and it shows a slideshow of recently uploaded pictures to Blogger.  It doesn't sound that cool on the surface, but getting a visual impression about what people are thinking about is really cool.  (I'm told to be wary as the hours grow late.)  Even better, just click a picture and go to that blog entry.

I found this video, which, if you like watching little kids play, is really funny.  Enjoy.

I was in class today and I had the most bizarre experience.  To say it was deja vu would not entirely be accurate, as I knew exactly what was going to happen.

A professor was relating this story in class that I would swear he had told before.  Now I had not had him until this semester, nor had I even met him until the first day of class.  Oh, and I've never seen him outside of a classroom setting.  Anyway, all that is to say I couldn't have possibly heard him tell this story in any other setting than our class.

So he's telling the story, and I figure he's just repeating a story and I know exactly what he's going to say.  Only the thing is, nobody else was reacting as though this was repeated.  Indeed, many people laughed and interjected comments of disbelief, and I doubt that everyone was trying to be funny.  Needless to say, I was a little freaked out.  How could I know this story and no one else in the class know it?  This wasn't just a feeling of deja vu, I know I heard this story.  How come nobody else did?

(Cue twilight zone narration/music)

It's good to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra getting into new music...



Aussies Rule!

I thought I'd post a quick update on our Kiva loans.  So far, everyone is paying on time which is exciting.  It's cool to know that things are working well for them.  If you haven't gotten a chance to check out this site, I'd encourage you to do so.  It seems like a great way to give people the opportunity to help themselves.

This evening I went to hear Christian Zacharias play at the Folly Theater.

His program was:

Schumann - Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Beethoven - Sonata in Eb Major, Op. 7
                *Intermission*
Schubert - Sonata in A Major, D959

He is a very fine pianist and demonstrated wonderful control over his interpretation.  For my taste, the Schumann had a bit too much rubato, I felt like I was being jerked around at times, but the Schubert was simply remarkable.

But you see, even though this was good concert, I found myself bored at times, especially during the first half.  Maybe I just got haven't gotten enough sleep lately, or maybe I'm tired of going to piano recitals and hearing nothing but Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, et. al.  (That is probably, to an extent, the fault of the Friends of Chamber Music).

But if I want to hear new music, I have to go to a concert such as though done by newEar.  These are wonderful concerts, but at the same time I often feel like I'm not hip enough to be there.  I'm exaggerating a bit, of course, but sometimes I wonder if a mock turtleneck isn't actually listed somewhere in the dress code.  Does the fact that someone likes atonal music mean they are more enlightened then those who like Mozart?  Do you have to be pretentious to appreciate some of this stuff?

I guess what I'm saying is that I wish things were a bit more relaxed at times.  I want to hear something written after 1940 on a piano recital at the Folly (or, if I'm lucky, something written during my lifetime).  I also want to go hear new music in a setting where I don't feel embarrassed to say, "Um, I don't get it," or worse, "I didn't like that."

Is that too much to ask?

Has you seen da cheezburger?

So I've been trying to get the last tax document I need from this place for several weeks now, and the last straw came today.

I called a couple weeks ago to have it mailed again, with no success.  Then today I received in the mail from them a survey on my satisfaction with their handling of my situation.  Assuming that they didn't want me to fill out the survey in my current mood I had to call again today, confirm that it was in fact mailed before (supposedly), was not returned to them, and that my address was correct.  Everything checked out, so I had them mail me another copy.

This, of course, has me worried, so I had to take the precaution of placing a fraud alert on my credit in case someone stole it from my mailbox.  Awesome.  I hope this is the final attempt with this organization (which thankfully I no longer will have to deal with after this is settled--knock on wood).

I've often enjoyed walking through the sharper image store, but I've never, ever bought anything there.  I have wondered if the 'salespeople' were there merely to prevent people like me from breaking stuff, because I don't recall them actually selling anything.  Well, it turns out that fewer and fewer people are buying their shiny stuff.

As the byline from CNNMoney.com reads, "A week after naming a new chief executive, specialty retailer files under Chapter 11, says it plans to close 90 of its 184 stores as soon as possible."

So much for all those free massages...

Lately I've been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia, admittedly for the first time.  Right now I'm on The Silver Chair, leaving me only The Last Battle before the series is complete.  (Yes, I read it in chronological order, not the order of publication.)  I have been enjoying these latter books more than the first few, but on the whole I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the series.  That's not to say that I don't like it, it just isn't Lord of the Rings.

Hopefully once I'm done, I'll be able to post a bit more about what I've thought of the series.  I'm interested to see where he's taking things, both from a literary and religious stand point.  I will add here that I enjoyed reading the His Dark Materials series much more (think The Golden Compass), as I think that Pullman is much better able to weave an interesting story and create remarkable worlds.

Now I know that what I've just written seems a bit like heresy, but just because I enjoyed those books more doesn't mean that I'm somehow going to become an atheist.  I just thought I should give those books a chance before passing judgment as so many email forwards and facebook groups would suggest I do.

So maybe once I'm done with Narnia, I'll reread Pullman's books do a comparison.  (That is, if my long-suffering friends can stand me borrowing them a bit longer.)  That could be pretty interesting.

M. Night Shyamalan's newest flick - The Happening.

What the trailer doesn't show much is that it stars Zooey Deschanel, also known as Will Ferrell's love interest from Elf.  I can't say that I'm a fan of Mark Wahlberg, though, despite how awesome We Own the Night was.

So one of our cats is having a bit of a weight problem.  I won't say who...

... but it's getting to be a bit of a problem.  We aren't sure what to do, as our other cat is just fine.  We regulate their intake of food pretty strictly, but I think that this one is getting more than her fair share.

To compensate, we encourage the other cat to play with (that is, beat up) the fat one, and every night we have "fat camp," where we play with her and her favorite toy until she can't anymore.  Outside of that, I'm out of ideas.

If she gets much bigger, I'm afraid we'll have to eat her.  What goes well with kitteh?

Carrie and I went out for dinner tonight at our favorite Italian restaurant - Garozzo's.  Now, Garozzo's is great (once you get past the fact that they pronounce it like Garoso's and not like the double zz you get in pizza), but you have to enjoy garlic.  A lot.  More than any other edible item, ever.  And then some.

It really isn't too extreme, garlic-wise, but Carrie and I really dig it, so we get the garlic dip for our bread, which is a blend of cheese and garlic and oils and other goodies.  To this we add the toasted ravioli appetizer, a St. Louis tradition.  To top everything off, we split the Chicken Spiedini, their speciality.  We also enjoyed some wine this evening, and I would highly recommend the Four Graces Pinot Noir.

So that's my dinner recommendation for the evening.  Also on the list of my recommendations, avoid any concert that includes the Sibelius Violin Concerto, but that's just my taste.

Well, I've recently updated to the most recent version of movable type, and with all the changes that needed to be made on the server side, it seemed good to start from scratch with the design.

I would like to get back into blogging more, again.  Frankly, some of my friends have been putting me to shame lately, and as I get back into reading blogs, I want to post more again.

As far as the overall website goes, I think I'll be scratching the music and picture pages, for separate reasons.  The picture pages no longer seem relevant, as I don't update them and frankly facebook is a great place to upload, as is smugmug, so I have no need for separate hosting.  As far as the music goes, as I begin applying for teaching positions, I can't have just any ole recordings floating around on the internet.

So that's what's new.  For those that haven't seen this, I thought I'd also link to something crazy I did a few years back.

Behold!  Facial Hair February!

As Yoda once said, "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

What is the relevance, you ask? Well, this whole post-minimalism project has been really taking my musical interests in a new direction, and I didn't realize how much it had been affecting me, though. You see, this evening, Carrie and I were watching No Reservations, and while listening to the score I noticed how much I liked it. Then I mentioned to Carrie that it kind of sounded like Philip Glass. I was right.

Frankly, I blame David.

Just thought I'd post a cool project I've been helping with at our church. If you aren't familiar with StoryCorps, they describe themselves as such:

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.

By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. StoryCorps is the largest oral history project of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

It's an amazing project and something we wanted to duplicate with our church. My role was to help write and provide the narration for the project, that is, I was the talent. What really made this come together, though, was the incredible editing job that Justin Geoghegan did. So, without further ado, here are the tracks to the CD we created. (If you listen to only one, I'd go with #7.)

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
Track 9
Track 10

If there's one good thing that's coming out of this election season (aside from getting a new president), it's that Carrie and I will be receiving a nice, crisp check from the treasury department. Isn't that special.

Of course, the irony is, that the idea behind this "stimulus" package is to boost our economy, but Carrie and I had already been planning a trip to Europe this summer, so a lot of that money will be converted into Euros. Ha ha. Of course, thanks to the Fed's kowtowing to Wall Street, that exchange rate is pretty crappy. (Oh, and thanks for killing the returns on our high yield savings account, Bernake. 5.5% APY is now a paltry 3.6%. Way to screw us responsible people.)

Aside--granted, you could argue that by being responsible we should also like to see our stock investments buoyed by the rate cuts, but frankly, since retirement is at least 40 years away, I don't mind if the market goes down. In fact, I've already increased our monthly investments hoping that it will.

Ok, so if you have any ideas about what we should do in Europe, let us know. We're currently going to be spending time in London with my Uncle, but aside from that, were wanting to hit Prague, Vienna, and some of Germany if possible. Know anyone we could stay with? :)